Ranking remaining NFL playoff teams; Nick Saban, Michael Vick entering College Football Hall of Fame

This is an article version of the CBS Sports HQ AM Newsletter, the ultimate guide to every day in sports. You can sign up to get it in your inbox every weekday morning here.

🏈 Good morning to all, but especially to …

NICK SABAN AND THE REST OF THE 2025 COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS

The 2025 College Football Hall of Fame class is full of big names, but none bigger than Nick Saban. The seven-time national champion (six with Alabama, one with LSU) headlines an absolutely loaded group. Here are some of his notable classmates:

• Urban Meyer
• Michael Vick
• Michael Strahan
• John Henderson
• Graham Harrell
• Haloti Ngata
• Montee Ball
• Steve Slaton

Here’s the entire list.

👍 Honorable mentions

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏈 Ranking remaining NFL playoff teams

The Wild Card Round wasn’t the most exciting NFL playoff weekend ever. Five of the six games were blowouts. I had high hopes coming in, and they very much went unfulfilled.

I highly, highly doubt that happens again this weekend.

• Ravens-Bills needs no introduction. Lamar Jackson vs. Josh Allen is a battle of the top two MVP candidates. It’s going to be freezing, and they might see snow.
• Rams-Eagles could be a football nerd’s dream. The Matthew Stafford/Puka Nacua/Sean McVay triumvirate can get as hot as any offense, even against Philadelphia’s excellent defense. Can the Rams slow Saquon Barkley down? Can Jalen Hurts get the passing game going if they do?
• Commanders-Lions features Jayden Daniels against the NFL’s best offense. Need I say more?
• Texans-Chiefs may not look like a good one, but that Houston defense can cause problems, and it’s not like Kansas City has blown away the competition this year, even en route to a 15-2 record.

Bryan DeArdo ranked all eight teams remaining, and his top pick isn’t even a top-two seed … in its own conference!

• DeArdo: “1. Ravens — Jackson and Henry have been tremendous, but the Ravens are anything but a two-man show. Baltimore’s offense boasts a tough, physical offensive line, two talented tight ends in Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely, and an underrated supporting cast at the skill positions … Baltimore’s secondary is spearheaded by two of the best defensive backs in the business in safety Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey.”

I am a bit worried about Zay Flowers‘ potential absence, but I suppose we’ll see what Jackson & Co. can do, with or without him.

No matter where each team landed in the above rankings, they all have major questions, Cody Benjamin notes.

🏈 College Football Playoff National Championship: How big offseasons propelled Ohio State, Notre Dame

One can contend that with the transfer portal, high-school recruiting and NIL, there really is no offseason in college football. There’s just the time of the year you’re playing games on the field and the time of the year you’re … well … playing games off the field.

Ohio State and Notre Dame mastered the latter to help them in the former. Shehan Jeyarajah shows how huge additions/retentions from the past year helped the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish get to the title game.

• Jeyarajah: “Ohio State: Hiring Chip Kelly — In the College Football Playoff era, no play calling coach has ever won a national championship. It was a difficult decision for Day to give up the responsibility, but Kelly has helped free him up to focus on the rest of the team. … Notre Dame: Keeping defensive stars — Safety Xavier Watts earned All-America honors last season as one of the most disruptive players in the country. … Defensive lineman Howard Cross was among the best interior linemen in college football last season, but decided to follow Watts back to school in hopes of winning a championship.”

Of course, Ohio State has plenty of stars, too, including a guy who has made Kelly’s job easier: Jeremiah Smith. The Buckeyes had to hold off Miami for the star freshman’s services, and I thoroughly enjoyed John Talty and Dennis Dodd looking at how NIL money has shifted the balance of power in college football. It certainly helped in Smith’s case.

And while we praise Day for being willing to give up some responsibility, how about Marcus Freeman rallying Notre Dame after that awful Northern Illinois loss? He has proved the Notre Dame powers that be right … and then some, Dennis writes.

🏀 Suns acquire Nick Richards from Hornets

The Suns are the latest team making moves around the edges as they sit on the fringe of the playoff picture. Phoenix acquired Nick Richards and a second-round pick from the Hornets for three second-round picks.

Richards, 27, is an athletic, physical, 7-foot lob threat and rim protector averaging 8.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 21 minutes per game. He’s very different from Jusuf Nurkic, a more ground-bound big who recently fell out of the rotation, and the Suns’ other bigs, Mason Plumlee and Oso Ighodaro.

The Suns came out on top in Sam Quinn’s trade grades.

• Quinn: “Suns: B+ | Richards has most of the tools they’re looking for. He’s going to catch lobs. He can actually move around a bit defensively, which Nurkic can’t. Mike Budenholzer has turned far lesser athletes into elite rim-protectors. And most importantly here, Richards is cheap. That’s true in an asset sense, as Phoenix was able to acquire him without touching its last remaining tradable first-round pick (2031), but it is also true financially.”

📺 What we’re watching Thursday

🏀 No. 17 Georgia Tech at No. 3 Notre Dame (W), 6 p.m. on ACC Network
🏀 No. 20 Michigan at Minnesota (M), 7 p.m. on FS1
🏀 Mississippi State at No. 15 Tennessee (W), 7 p.m. on SEC Network
🏀 Cavaliers at Thunder, 7:30 p.m. on TNT/truTV
🏀 No. 18 Cal at No. 16 Duke (W), 8 p.m. on ACC Network
🏀 Rockets at Kings, 10 p.m. on TNT/truTV
🏀 No. 16 Gonzaga at Oregon State (M), 11 p.m. on CBS Sports Network